Chapter 21.1

Jiang Rou frowned and asked, “What kind of look was that?”

Li Xiao raised his eyebrows and smiled innocently at her. “What look?”

“That look you gave just now wasn’t right.”

“Then what kind of look did I give?”

How would she know? She just felt that his look was strange.

Jiang Rou rolled her eyes at him, not wanting to continue the conversation.

Li Xiao paid no mind to her reaction. After placing Jiang Rou’s feet into the basin, he sat down on a stool and took off his own shoes and socks. His feet were larger, so when he placed them in the basin, they pushed Jiang Rou’s feet to the side, raising the water level from her instep to her ankle.

The two feet were tightly pressed together, and the skin-to-skin contact was obvious. Jiang Rou felt it was too intimate, and her face had a strange expression on it. She pretended to complain: “You made my foot washing water stink.”

Li Xiao didn’t get angry after hearing this but just sneered, “Your feet don’t smell so great either. Why don’t you smell your own socks?”

After saying that, he pulled out the socks he had stuffed under his bottom and offered them for her to smell.

“……”

It was truly frustrating. He usually didn’t talk much, but he always had a retort ready for everything.

Jiang Rou stomped on his feet twice in frustration.

Li Xiao just laughed and let her vent her anger.

After washing his feet, Li Xiao poured out the water. Seeing that no one in the other two beds was getting up to wash up, he asked, “Should I turn off the light?”

The woman in the middle bed remained silent, but the woman in the first bed said, “Turn off the light, but don’t close the door.”

Li Xiao frowned but turned off the light and gently closed the door.

Once the light was off, the room was plunged into darkness.

The woman in the middle bed reminded the girl guarding the baby crib to stay alert and not fall asleep.

Jiang Rou couldn’t bear it and interjected, “Isn’t that unnecessary? Your daughter looks quite exhausted.”

This afternoon, she heard the old woman muttering as she left that their village was far from the county seat. The girl had come once in the morning, gone home to cook for her younger brother in between, and made several trips back and forth. Who could handle that?

But the woman in the middle bed heard this and replied confidently, “Of course, you don’t have to worry since you gave birth to a daughter.” ^[1]Meaning, since Jiang Rou gave birth to a girl, she can afford to lose the child

Jiang Rou was very angry.

She had heard her mother say that the older generation favored sons over daughters, but she didn’t expect it to be this extreme.

Li Xiao walked over and said bluntly, “Why waste your breath on people like that?”

He thought she was looking for trouble. People like that only cared about sons. He had seen enough of such attitudes. When he was young, he had even seen someone throw a newborn baby girl into a dung pit to drown.

He did not lower his voice when he said this, and Jiang Rou in the middle bed also heard it, but because it was Li Xiao who said it, she did not dare to speak out.

You can tell at a glance that some people are not easy to mess with.

Jiang Rou lay down, feeling frustrated. Seeing him come toward her, she said curtly, “It’s too cramped like this. Let’s each sleep at one end.”

The bed was so narrow that they couldn’t lie flat if they slept on the same side.

Li Xiao ignored her and continued to edge toward her side, replying, “Didn’t you say my feet smell bad?”

“……”

Jiang Rou thought about it and realized he had a point. Given his long limbs, if he lay down, his feet might end up right by her face.

Forget it.

But it was a bit crowded for the two of them to sleep on one side, so Jiang Rou had to change from lying flat to sleeping on her side. She faced the direction of the baby crib, while Li Xiao leaned in from behind.

His hands seemed awkwardly placed; he moved his hand behind Jiang Rou’s back, eventually settling on her waist.

Jiang Rou felt a bit ticklish and shifted a couple of times, but ultimately decided to let him be.

Whether it was because the room was too quiet or her ears were too sensitive, she could clearly hear the man’s breathing behind her and the warmth coming from his body.

She closed her eyes and slept for a while, but found that she couldn’t fall asleep. In the end, half of her body was stiff but still very alert.

Jiang Rou thought for a moment, turned over, and couldn’t resist mentioning the incident with the woman in the middle bed waking up earlier. She reminded him, “Daughters can be very successful too. Don’t just follow others’ opinions.”

However, after saying that, she felt she might be overthinking. Regardless of what Li Xiao did in the past, even just in the past few days, she had observed that he was a competent father and “husband.”

Li Xiao was a little sleepy, so he took her into his arms and hugged her tightly: “Stop thinking about it; my daughter will definitely be no worse than others. Go to sleep.”

“Hmm”

Jiang Rou’s face was buried in his neck. She struggled a bit but couldn’t break free. Eventually, she shifted to a more comfortable position and fell asleep.

Whether it was because Li Xiao was beside her or not, Jiang Rou quickly adjusted and fell into a deep sleep without any trouble.

In her sleep, she unconsciously burrowed closer to him.

Though Li Xiao was asleep, he remained alert. He occasionally lifted his hand to check if the blanket was covering her properly and occasionally glanced at the baby crib.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

In the middle of the night, when the soft sound of the door being pushed open came from outside, Li Xiao immediately woke up.

He opened his eyes, listened carefully, and after confirming he hadn’t misheard, he frowned, turned his head to look, and then cautiously got out of bed, leaving Jiang Rou’s embrace.

As he put on his shoes and walked toward the door, he passed by the baby crib at the foot of the middle bed. The girl, who was keeping watch over her younger brother, seemed not to have slept. Hearing the noise, she turned her head, looking toward the door with fear. When she saw Li Xiao getting up, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and said softly to him, “I was afraid I might accidentally fall asleep, so I closed the door.”

Hearing the sound, she was hesitating whether to wake up her mother.

Li Xiao glanced at her, said nothing, and went around to open the door directly.

He wasn’t as soft-hearted as Jiang Rou. Whether the others slept or not was of no concern to him.

The door of the ward was a bit old, making noise each time it was opened or closed.

Li Xiao tried to open the door quietly, and when the door opened, he saw a medium-sized man standing outside.

The man looked tired and was about to raise his hand to knock on the door. To his surprise, the door opened, and he looked up to meet the eyes of a young and handsome man.

He was momentarily taken aback. “You…”

Li Xiao frowned and asked, “Who are you? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?”

The man reacted belatedly and explained, “My wife gave birth and is staying in this ward.”

Afraid that Li Xiao would not believe it, he added, “Her name is Huang Ying. I came here last night as well, but I’m the driver, so I didn’t have time to come during the day.”

Li Xiao heard Jiang Rou chatting with the pregnant woman in the first bed today. It seems that her name is Huang Ying.

He nodded lightly. “Be quiet; they are all sleeping.”

After that, he turned around and went in, not caring about the person behind him.

Li Xiao went back to his bed and lay down. The girl in the middle bed seemed to want to ask something, but seeing Li Xiao’s indifferent attitude, she didn’t dare to speak. She just looked at the man who had come in from outside with some suspicion.

Before long, a sobbing sound came from the first bed, as if the woman on it had woken up.

Li Xiao picked Jiang Rou up again. Jiang Rou seemed disturbed by the noise, mumbling a few times. Li Xiao adjusted the hat that had slipped off her head and frowned, saying to the back, “Keep it down.”

The woman on the first bed choked up, biting her lip tightly to keep her voice down.

But after a while, she still couldn’t help but hit her man, whispering angrily: “I gave birth three days ago, and as soon as your mother found out it was a granddaughter, she immediately turned and left without a second glance. Is a granddaughter, not a person? Even a daughter can go to college.”

The man listened impatiently. “Okay, I’m so tired. Why are you bringing this up now?”

The woman felt a pang of disappointment. After a while, she heard her man’s thunderous snoring.

Feeling heartbroken, she didn’t understand why the difference between people was so great.

Jiang Rou had said her man had wanted a son before, but after the daughter was born, he seemed to like her even more, taking care of everything, from feeding to changing diapers.

Tears started to flow again as she silently regretted not listening to her parents and marrying far away.

—o—o—o—

Lucia: New Schedule! I will unlock 3 Chapters every Saturday and then 2 Chapters every Tuesday!